Best movies like American Blue Note
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Jack, Nat, Jerry, Lee and Tommy play jazz in small clubs, but only one of them will reach success.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 97
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: psychedelic, independent film
Best tv shows and movies like American Blue Note (1989):
Similar in 86%
Amerikana (2001)
Plot Summary:
Following the Dogma rules does not make this film hard to watch... In the end, it is a great story and shows that Merendino can be a mature filmmaker. It's about two guys a Vespa and a trip from South Dakota to Los Angeles. It's funny, insightful and tragic.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 127
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, Germany, Denmark
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: road movie, underground film, independent film
Similar in 86%
Aloha Summer (1988)
Plot Summary:
It's the 60s and a bunch of crazy teenagers meet in the beautiful island of Hawaii during their summer holidays. Although they come from different backgrounds, they hang out together and shake up the island! They surf, dance, drink, fight and fall in love. As the summer approaches its end, they find themselves inseparable, friends for a lifetime.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 295
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 81%
Stony Island (1978)
Plot Summary:
"Stony Island gives you a priceless look back at Chicago’s South Side neighborhood, at a time when very few films were made in within the city at all — and features a legion of legendary Chicago players (Gene Barge, Phil Upchurch, Larry Ball, Richie Davis, Tennyson Stephens, Ronnie Barron, and a young Susanna Hoffs) alongside Dennis Franz (“NYPD Blue”) and Rae Dawn Chong. Telling the story of a group of multiracial R&B performers, and how they’re affected by the death of a veteran musician from their circle, Stony Island is an incredible time capsule, and provides a sweetly funky soundtrack to boot!" -- The Cinefamily.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 139
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 87%
Bix (1991)
Plot Summary:
Biopic of troubled jazz musician/composer Bix Beiderbecke (1903-1931), who played with the Paul Whiteman band, among others.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 162
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: Italy, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Narrien Illat (1970)
Plot Summary:
The ups and downs of the popular music world are revealed to a singer.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 49
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: Finland
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: rockumentary
Similar in 76%
I Used to Be Famous (2022)
Plot Summary:
A former boy band star unexpectedly gets a second shot at success when he forms a bond with a gifted young drummer.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: UK
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: buddy comedy
Similar in 84%
Sweet Love, Bitter (1967)
Plot Summary:
A loose fictitious of Charlie Parker's last years and a portrait of the jazz scene in 1960's New York.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 129
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: reflective, independent film
Similar in 78%
Satin (2011)
Plot Summary:
A washed up Vegas lounge singer, Jack Satin (Hamilton von Watts), has no money, no job, and delusional aspirations of fame. When Jack is forced to leave Vegas, he packs up his old Cadillac and hits the road for Atlantic City. But his car dies in the desert and Jack is left stranded in the small town of Lost Springs. There, Jack meets jazz legend turned mechanic, Doc Bishop (Robert Guillaume), who helps him with his car trouble. Although Jack is far from the stage, he begins to find himself feeling at home in the small town. When he meets local bar owner, Lauren Wells (Melissa Joan Hart), Jack starts to see there is more to life than chasing fame and fortune. Doc encourages Jack to explore his true love of music, while Lauren provides the audience he has always wanted. But as Jack realizes this town has more to offer him than the bright lights of the big city, his Vegas past catches up with him -- what unfolds is comedy at the crossroads of life.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 263
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, humorous, semi serious, offbeat, realistic, retro, entertaining, crying, independent film
Similar in 82%
Alice's Restaurant (1969)
Plot Summary:
Alice's Restaurant is a 1969 movie adapted from a song by Arlo Guthrie. The song is Arlo Guthrie's most famous work, a talking blues based on a true story that began on Thanksgiving Day 1965. The movie reproduces the events of the song, in addition to other scenes.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: psychedelic, humorous, semi autobiographical, sentimental, offbeat, realistic, witty, semi serious, road movie, sexy
Similar in 89%
Len and Company (2015)
Plot Summary:
A successful music producer quits the industry and exiles himself in upstate New York, but the solitude he seeks is shattered when his estranged son and the pop star he's created come looking for answers.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 628
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 80%
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)
Plot Summary:
A hip and happenin' all girl rock group head to LA to claim lead-singer Kelly's inheritance and make it (and make it) in LA. Soon the girls fall into a morass of drugs and deceit as their recording success soars. It takes several tragedies to make them stop and think... but is it too late?.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: erotic, psychotronic, grindhouse, psychedelic, surreal, controversial, cult classic, humorous, biting, sexual
Similar in 88%
Folk Hero & Funny Guy (2016)
Plot Summary:
Two artistically inclined childhood friends, a comedian and a folk-rocker respectively, set out on a tour together in hopes of regaining their "mojo" and finding love in the process.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 606
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: funny, captivating, independent film, entertaining
Similar in 81%
Somebody's Life (2014)
Plot Summary:
A decade after the disappearance of his best friend and musical partner, Guille receives the offer from a label to finally release an album that never saw the light of day. His friend Pablo tries to help him overcome loss and grief, and release the album.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 56
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: Argentina
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: sincere, captivating
Similar in 85%
Intimate Lighting (1965)
Plot Summary:
Taking his young city girlfriend along for the trip, a man visits old musical friends in a country village for a string quartet rehearsal.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 71 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 76%
Stanley's Gig (2000)
Plot Summary:
An emotionally dysfunctional ukulele minstrel lands a gig at a nursing home where he strikes up an unlikely relationship with an ancient jazz chanteuse and awakens from a lifetime of loneliness and inconsequence.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 213
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, touching, independent film
Similar in 88%
Comment c'est Loin (2015)
Plot Summary:
After ten years of doing nothing, Orel and Gringe are in their mid 30s and they struggle to finish their first rap album. Their texts are mostly sex jokes and booze stories and reflect the everyday life they have in a small town from France. The problem is that they never really finished a song and when their producers want to meet, they have to face a new challenge : finish their first song in the next 24h. Their old issues, the fear of failure, their alcoholic friends and annoying girlfriends won't help them to do so, or will they ?.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: captivating, satirical, disturbing, semi serious
Similar in 86%
A Man Called Adam (1966)
Plot Summary:
A famous jazz trumpeter finds himself unable to cope with the problems of everyday life.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 659
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: independent film, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 83%
Sweet and Lowdown (1999)
Plot Summary:
A comedic biopic focused on the life of fictional jazz guitarist Emmett Ray. Ray was an irresponsible, free-spending, arrogant, obnoxious, alcohol-abusing, miserable human being, who was also arguably the best guitarist in the world.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 36000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, talky, sentimental, humorous, tragicomedy, realistic, semi serious, clever, witty, independent film
Similar in 80%
My Dinner with Jimi (2003)
Plot Summary:
The story of the night The Turtles met The Beatles and Howard Kaylan had dinner with Jimi Hendrix.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 265
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, realistic, captivating, semi serious, sincere, touching, serious, contemplative, cult film
Similar in 79%
The Commitments (1991)
Plot Summary:
Jimmy Rabbitte, just a tick out of school, gets a brilliant idea: to put a soul band together in Barrytown, his slum home in north Dublin. First he needs musicians and singers: things slowly start to click when he finds three fine-voiced females virtually in his back yard, a lead singer (Deco) at a wedding, and, responding to his ad, an aging trumpet player, Joey "The Lips" Fagan.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 38000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: Ireland, UK, USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: cult classic, independent film, feel good, humorous, realistic, offbeat, sincere, captivating, contemplative, semi serious
Similar in 76%
Grace of My Heart (1996)
Plot Summary:
An aspiring singer, Denise Waverly/Edna Buxton, sacrifices her own singing career to write hit songs that launch the careers of other singers. The film follows her life from her first break, through the pain of rejection from the recording industry and a bad marriage, to her final triumph in realizing her dream to record her own hit album.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: touching, inspirational, lyrical, sentimental, cult classic, period piece, sincere, realistic, semi serious, romantic
Similar in 77%
The Five Heartbeats (1991)
Plot Summary:
In the early 1960's, a quintet of hopeful, young African-American men form an amateur vocal group called The Five Heartbeats. After an initially rocky start, the group improves, turns pro, and rises to become a top flight music sensation. Along the way, however, the guys learn many hard lessons about the reality of the music industry.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: sentimental, hood, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, independent film, light, inspirational, road movie
Similar in 83%
That Thing You Do! (1996)
Plot Summary:
A Pennsylvania band scores a hit in 1964 and rides the star-making machinery as long as it can, with lots of help from its manager.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 73000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: humorous, sentimental, feel good, light, sincere, period piece, touching, sexy, retro, emotional
Similar in 76%
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (1982)
Plot Summary:
Corrine Burns retreats far into plans for her band, The Fabulous Stains, after her mother's death.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: retro, psychotronic, thinking, cult classic, independent film, clever, offbeat, humorous, realistic, witty
Similar in 84%
The Boat That Rocked (2009)
Plot Summary:
The Boat that Rocked is an ensemble comedy, where the romance is between the young people of the 60s, and pop music. It's about a band of DJs that captivate Britain, playing the music that defines a generation and standing up to a government that wanted control of popular culture via the British Broadcasting Corporation. Loosely based on the events in Britain in the 60's when the Labour government of Harold Wilson, wanted to bring the pirate stations under control, enough to see the passage of the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act on 15 August 1967.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 115000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: UK, France, Germany, USA
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: humorous, funny, sentimental, light, colorful, realistic, semi serious, melancholic, hilarious, indie film
Similar in 87%
The Space Between (2021)
Plot Summary:
Micky Adams, an eccentric has-been rock musician, loses his grip on reality as his record label looks to drop him and his new "unique" albums. In hopes of breaking out of the mailroom, young Charlie Porter is tasked with traveling to the musician's bizarre home and forcing Micky out of his contract. Micky realizes Charlie could be the key to an artistic breakthrough and the pair's unlikely friendship grows. The odd but powerful bond helps both gain perspective on the music industry, life, love... and the space between.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 887
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sincere, humorous, captivating, entertaining
Similar in 86%
The Identical (2014)
Plot Summary:
During the Great Depression, identical twins are separated at birth. One, Drexel Hemsley becomes a wildly successful '50s rock star, while the other, Ryan Wade, struggles to balance his passion for music and pleasing his parents, who want him to become a preacher. Finally, Ryan rebels against his parents' wishes and launches his own music career -- performing the hits of Drexel Hemsley. Ryan later learns the truth about Drexel when their fates tragically collide.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: captivating, serious, realistic, touching, exciting, sentimental, disgusting
Similar in 87%
Elvis (1979)
Plot Summary:
Biographical movie about the famous rock singer Elvis Presley.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 168 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, realistic, sentimental, serious, retro, captivating, psychotronic
Similar in 83%
'Round Midnight (1986)
Plot Summary:
Inside the Blue Note nightclub one night in 1959 Paris, an aged, ailing jazzman coaxes an eloquent wail from his tenor sax. Outside, a young Parisian too broke to buy a glass of wine strains to hear those notes. Soon they will form a friendship that sparks a final burst of genius in director Bertrand Tavernier.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA, France
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, captivating, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, independent film, light, inspirational
Similar in 80%
Almost Famous (2000)
Plot Summary:
In 1973, 15-year-old William Miller's unabashed love of music and aspiration to become a rock journalist lands him an assignment from Rolling Stone magazine to interview and tour with the up-and-coming band Stillwater – fronted by lead guitar Russell Hammond and lead singer Jeff Bebe William.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 289000
Genere: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: sentimental, road movie, feel good, realistic, semi autobiographical, teen, emotional, independent film, cult classic, sweet